First: as always – I own nothing!
Second: thanks for the nice reviews everyone! And thanks for joining the challenge; it helped me a lot actually, so I will do a new one!
Challenge: the first person that gives the next chapter a review can name a piece of clothing that has to be in the next chapter I post! Only the first person! ;)
Also, I'll do the rest of the story with "I" instead of "he/she"… made more sense this way ;)
Chapter 4
Victoria POV
My father had always been a good man, a good father and a good politician. He was well liked, mostly because he never took any major political risks and he never did anything remotely out of order or against the law. He was all in all a stabile man in a big political party. Even though this might not sound as praise, it is, my father is a wonderful person and I love him dearly. So you have to understand, this whole idea of giving away oil to save the world is not the kind of thing he would do, he would support the idea, yes, but he would never suggest it. So this all leads me to believe that he had sort of "saved up" on political ideas to make a really large one. And this was big! Our whole family was in shock when we found out, I think even my father was a bit shocked too.
What happened was that when the massive oilfield was found the nation buzzed and argued for weeks what to do, should we make the welfare system stronger, save the money, leave it in the ocean and so on. My father was on a big talk show when he made a comment that it should be given away and push the rest of the world in a more "Norwegian way". I had laughed at my father's comment as I was streaming it on my computer in my flat in London, I knew him well enough to know it had been a joke.
The rest of the country did not, and before any of us knew what had happened, my father, the polite, careful man who everyone liked had gone and made himself the most talked about person in the world. The man who would make world peace happen and end poverty once and for all.
I had just moved to England, London to be precise and I had finished with unpacking my last box of books that day, school had just begun and I was enjoying it all. I was glad I had decided on England instead of Australia, it had been just a few days here and it already felt at home.
It did not take long before my father, and the party started getting a lot of threats, I guess that came as no surprise. And then after that it took only a day or two before my family, and I started getting threats too. It surprised me at first, I almost laughed of it, that was until I came home and found my new flat broken in to and a very nasty note on my bed. It got bad after that. Luckily my university was kind, or to scared what it would do to their reputation if they did not act, and allowed me to go back to Norway and do my work online.
The threats kept coming, letters reassuring me that they would hurt everyone I knew if this deal was signed, they made my father out to be this horrifyingly bad guy with some sort of a terrorism agenda. The good part of this was that the nation stood together, really believing this could be a good thing for the world. We had constant security around us, which was new to us; it was just the prime minister and the king who used to have that.
After a few weeks back home I realized that I had to go back to London soon. I had obligations to my studies that I had to maintain, and it was hard doing that from my old, pink bedroom in a small town without any library. The arrangements were made surprisingly fast and I knew better than to argue when I was told I had to stay in hiding with an agent, it was this or nothing.
My father was stuck in the capital and was unable to see me of at the airport, but my mother and my brother was there and I could not help but think if I was ever going to see them again as I walked away. The agent I was being escorted by was not any of the once protecting my family, I had only met him a few times before.
It was only a light drizzle when we landed in England, and our rainboots and coats seemed a little over excessive compared to the weather in Norway. We got of the plane in the back and made our way to one of the closed of parts of the gate where someone from the British Intelligence were to meet us. It shocked me to find that the agent was not a woman as I was promised, but a very handsome male agent. He was dressed impeccably in a black suit, his hair short, broad shoulders, but he looked tired. I had used to work in a clothing store for men, and considered myself as quite good on suits, and the suit the agent was wearing was not the cheap kind. The two agents talked briefly and exchanged forms and papers, and as my Norwegian agent was about to leave he said some comforting words before giving me a brief hug. Too bad he had to go back to Norway.
The British agent gave me some short information, he did not seem happy to be here, but he was polite. He turned on his heel and walked away so quick I almost lost him, so I half jogged behind him. His car was, like the suit, nothing any Norwegian policeman or agent would own; even with my limited knowledge about cars I knew this was a good one.
The windows were tinted and as the car slowly moved in the London traffic I realized that this was probably the last time I was going to be able to be out around people in a while. I needed to get a few things from my apartment and some shops, but in this fancy car with a secret agent, well it felt odd to ask if we could stop so I could buy tampons and makeup remover. The man next to me did not belong to the rest of us; he was this mirage, and nothing like the men I knew. Nevertheless I did need to get some stuff, and it took me a few seconds to remember how to form my words correct in English after not using the language in weeks.
"Excuse me sir, but there are a few belongings that I need from my apartment and a few items from a drugstore as well, there is a Boots store on the corner of my building, it would only take five minutes. We are not that far away from it now actually". I did not dare to look at the man, I had no idea how I looked and I was sure I would forget how to form a sentence if he saw me in the eyes.
"Unfortunately your apartment has been emptied and all of your belongings are put away safely in a secret storage, but give me a list and I will arrange for the items to be retrieved for you. The same goes to any other items you need, make me a list and an agent will pick it up for you. If you do it now I think they will manage to have it ready at the headquarters by the time we get there".
"Wait, you emptied my apartment without telling me? That is private property and you can't just…" I was rambling, and I was glad he stopped me before I said something I would regret.
"I can assure you, the agents who emptied it have seen it all before, and that they were very discreet. And the Norwegian prime minister was told, as well as your father".
"They knew? I am sorry I lost my temper, it is hardly your fault, would it be possible to get a list on what they found?" There were one item that was hidden, and it would be bad if it got in the wrong hands. We were stuck in traffic and had stopped just outside a drugstore; somehow I thought the agent would think less of me if I tried to run away from him…
"That list can be arranged, and the same goes for you, write down what you need and it will be organized". The man did not look at me, and he still had his stone face on. I was glad I had decided to put pen and a notebook in my purse, I am sure it would have killed me to ask the agent for it. From my apartment I needed a few books, some clothes and if found, a USB stick. I really needed that USB stick! From the drugstore I needed makeup remover, tampons, nail polish remover and mascara, I had left mine back home and just realized it when I was on the plane. Before I got a chance to tear out the piece of paper the agent took my notebook from my hands and took a picture of it and sent it to someone. He gave me back the book without a word, I stuttered thanks.
We drove for another thirty minutes before he suddenly in the middle of a street took a sharp turn and what I thought would be a brick wall, was an underground garage. The door behind us closed the second the car was on the inside. I was happy I had not screamed.
"This is out headquarters Miss, we will only stay here for a few minutes, would you please follow me". It was not really a question, I was fairly certain I had to come with him no matter what.
There were hallways after hallways, marble and glass, no windows. And again the agent walked so fast I was halfway jogging behind him to keep up. Suddenly the wall in front of us diapered and we entered a room full of people dressed in lab coats sitting next to computers. The room was big; it looked as if it had used to be a warehouse but now turned in to, well whatever this was. At the end of the room, there was an elevated podium with a man standing on top of it, he was managing a huge screen on the wall and I saw a picture of me flying across it. How on earth had thy found that picture, it was taken when I was 17 and a little bit drunk and it looked a lot worse than what it really was. The man on the podium shut it all down when he realized I was in the room.
"Where did you get that picture? I can explain, it is not what it looks like!" I was turning red of embarrassment; there were probably thirty people in that room, and Mr. stone-faced agent.
"Ah Miss. Hagen, I am sorry, you were not supposed to see that, however I cannot tell you where I have retrieved it, but, well…" The man, well, boy, he could hardly be more than 22 years old, my age. The agent stopped him mid-sentence, and only waved for him to follow, he did the same to me. Both computerboy and I followed him in to a smaller, private room.
"We do not have a lot of time, Q, would you please fill us in on the information, and did you get my list?" The boy with the strange name quickly went to a smaller screen, and started navigating it with only his hands in the air, fancy computer. It went by so quickly that I only got confused, so I decided on only focusing on what he was saying. He told us about the safe house, what the MI6 could provide etc. He took up his phone and a short moment later another man dressed in an expensive suit came in carrying a bag I knew was mine, as well as a plastic bag from Boots. Further humiliation, the man who I presumed was a younger agent looked like he had walked out of an Armani commercial and he had now been out buying me tampons. Great.
The Armani agent was obviously underneath my agent in order, and as soon as Mr. Bond said thanks, the young man all but ran out from the room. I would much rather have him guarding me than Mr. Bond, I was however stuck with the older and grumpier agent.
